Page "Antony and Cleopatra" Paragraph 58

Other scholars, including Fordham University Professor Javier Jiménez-Belmonte, also discuss early critics ' views of Cleopatra in relation to a serpent signifying " original sin ".

The symbol of the serpent " functions, at the symbolic level, as a means of her submission, the phallic appropriation of the queen's body ( and the land it embodies ) by Octavius and the empire ".

The serpent, because it represents temptation, sin, and feminist weakness, is used by 19th and early 20th century critics to undermine Cleopatra's political authority and to emphasize the image of Cleopatra as manipulative seductress.